I was playing with my iPhone while having it connected to the car via Bluetooth. I wanted to play music from it without using the MIDI cable.

I could play the music but it had be started from the phone itself as no buttons on the stereo or the steering wheel worked.

I just read in the manual that it can be operated using voice control, will give it a go later on today.

Am I doing something wrong or is it just the way it is?

As far as I know, you can only control the phone (calling) functions via voice control, not music playback. In terms of starting the music playing, again you have to do this from your phone as the Bluetooth only works from phone to the car, not the other way round. I know with mine this is the case, not sure what others have managed to do.

You can control the music using voice,press and hold the phone button on the wheel until it beeps and says main menu,then say music and you command such as play,pause,next etc. I can do it with my iPhone 4. I don't use it though as Tisa pain thousand I use a memory stick

I just tried it earlier on on my way home from work and as chas says. Press and hold the volume button on your steering wheel to get into voice control and through there you can do the basics. I think it is really rubbish as each time you want to do anything you have to activate voice control, which stops the music playing and only then you can say few commands. That is hardly acceptble this day and age and I am really disappointed with this :(.

All other car stereos with Bluetooth functionality had two way comms with phones as long they supported A2D2 (or whatever it is called) protocol. I hope Skoda will fix this as this simply pathetic!